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... As soon as they feel resistance, I ask them to stop moving the lever and I refer to this as their base gear. I call this their easy flat road. I then cue relative to base gear. I ask them to ride at 85-90 RPM at base gear (no bouncing in the saddle). I don't give a number because it's relative to that person's abilities. Then I ask them to gear it up 1 or 2 gears while still maintaining 85-90 RPM. This becomes their hard flat road (on the real road, it would be a gear or two up on the bike but still on a flat road). If their pace drops, they've got too much resistance - I don't want them to climb just yet. For a hill climb, it's usually 3, 4 or 5 gears up from base (depending on how experienced the participants are) ...

... After lots of reading on this and other forums, trial and error, and considering the various fitness levels of my riders, I came up with a 10 gear rule. I asked the riders to find the highest gear in which they could do a seated climb for 2 minutes, while maintaining 60-65 RPM. I told them that was gear 8. Gear 1 is your flat, and gears 9 & 10 are for standing climbs only. ( Although we sometimes use 8 for standing climbs too.) ...

Interesting approach. This gets each rider to their own level. I'll have to play with this one Thanks for the idea.
Doug

There are some excellent approaches here - all respecting the differences between riders by not specifying a given number or wattage. Ultimately this mimics the Heart Zone approach to HR training also where everyone is at different BPMs, but relative difficulty or intensity is on a similar plane.

Being someone in the class and not the instructor, I am interested in anyone's feedback on the following. Thanks very much.

a) I've been told by separate instructors to target about 500 calories per class. Translating that to Keiser, it implies averaging 170 watts over 50min or >200 watts over 40min. For a 40min class, it seems most cyclers in the class are in the 150-170 watt range, so the so-called target seems unreasonable without extending the class towards the hour mark. I know we probably shouldn't target calories anyway, so I'm also wondering where this number came from.
Two-thirds of the class are standing. Within each track the gear starts at 17 then gets taken up to 19 and 21+ during the track, all at about 65rpm. One-third of the class is sprinting starting at gear 12 (and taken up to 13-14 during the track) and 110+rpm, so the following questions are all in the context of the overall class.
b) In a sprint, if I have a choice between riding at gear 12 and 120rpm versus gear 14 and 100rpm, producing the same wattage, why should I have a preference for one or the other? (Different set of muscles?)
c) If I can cycle at gear 16 and 75rpm while remaining seated, what would be the advantage of standing when cued to do so, i.e., should I remain seated until I need to stand to keep the pace? (Different set of muscles?)
d) In some climbs and sprints there is a short break mid-track for a gear change or other - should I try to push through the break and keep moving at pace (if I can), or should I force myself to take the break and rest a bit?

David .... the 500Cals is an arbitrary number. Since you realize it's not necessarily a rational goal, don't bother chasing it (we have a whole slew of threads in this Keiser section on just this topic)

Where it came from....? I think it's something you hear repeated by the likes of Gillian Miachaels etc. and in the context of weight management "You burn AT LEAST 500 Cals per class" If you think about it, it seems to be a benchmark to recommend to dieters also .... create a deficit of 500 clas a day and you'll lost a pound of fat a week sort of thing (also a myth) That's my best guess but weird ideas can come from all sorts of places.

The rest, I can't help you with other than say pedaling at 120 rpm (if this is a true cadence) would look a bit silly .... 85-95 is a more reasonable range for "flat road". If you can manage much more for any length of times, chances are your resistance is too low.

As for the rest, assuming you have competent instructors, the cues given out are usually intended to do "something" in the context of a class ..... if I cue specific moves at a specific time, it's usually for a good reason. I don't expect the class to look like synchronized cycling but if too many folk are doing their own thing, I can't help but wonder why they've come to a CLASS in the first place.

I've usually given a brief outline of what's in store during warm up and, if it's a class where say we start out somewhat "easy" it's usually because we're going to be building to a level that wouldn't be attainable if the class member starts out hard. Then they have to start faking it halfway through, get bored and probably blame me for a useless class. "Listen to me now.....or believe me later" is one of my mottos. My regulars get it!

As an example of how I often roll in a class with either new to SPIN or new to me members I'll give you a breakdaown of yesterday's class... It was an iteration of an old profile posted ages ago and repeated frequently by some of us....each with a different take and cuing style. The link prolly won't work for you until you've gotten a few more posts under your belt (intended as an incentive, not a tease... )

It's what I call an ABC ride.....and I even have A,B and C in big letters on the mirror at the front of class...

A is "seated climb", B is JOH/transitions/seated standing combo (whatever terminology you use) and I start off with 10 secs or so standing, 20 secs seated/C is standing climb.

Round 1 starts at 1 min each move with resistance increase at each minute.....time for each movement increases by 1 min progressively so that by the end of class the last round is 9 minutes with 8 increases (theoretically)

Now, although there should be no "need" to come out of the saddle at all for the first and possibly even the second round for folk who've nailed the cues, it's as it is (Listen to me now....") so that technique has been test-driven at lowish intensity in prep for when the $h!t starts to happen....those "transitions" in B, for instance help to give the legs a bit of a break when a seated climb is really starting to bite but you don't want to give up on it yet. By the time class is in the last 2 or 3 rounds ("......or believe me later"), the cue changes to "however many breaks from the addle you need..."

Of course, as usual there was a relative newbie to me who just needed to get a "better" workout from the get-go......and ended up having to pretend she needed to stretch and whatnot before we were halfway done. Some folk just have to find out the hard way, I guess. Anyways.....that's the thought process behind why I cue specific moves very specifically......I know what's coming because I put the class together (and have oftentimes practised it many times at home to check how my cues are supposed to feel) This happens to be a very tough class to hack and I have it in my "Climbageddon" series along with my WILT profile from the Flamme Rouge website and some of that site's cues .....first couple of rounds should have you wondering when the workout is going to start....last couple when is it going to end......and when you get to the point where you can do it as is (a genuine resistance increase every minute of that last 9 minute round) start adding more time/resistance to make it hard all over again.

Thanks for the posts here, they are all good... I teach classes both ways, calling out cadence/gear or letting them 'feel' what 'their' flat road is and going from there. Everyone is at a different level, so for either method I always tell the participants this is their workout, if you can't follow me, don't.

Also, I like them to sacrifice resistance for cadence... usually if I setting a pace, I want them to keep that pace (e.g., intervals, spin ups, sprints), if they can't they should decrease their resistance so they can.

I do a lot of subbing. When filling in for other instructors I have to be very specific in asking students to do something. A challenge is translating resistance for different students in different classes, especially without a computer. I usually start by asking them to start with no resistance at about 80 - 90 rpm. I then ask them to slowly add resistance until they can barely feel it. That, I tell them is very light resistance. I then tell them to keep adding resistance while seated until they are barely able to keep up the beat of a piece of music that is about 125 - 130 bpm. That, I tell them is very heavy resistance. Then, moderate is someplace in the middle. I also emphasize each student is different and what is moderate for one may be heavy for another. Once class is rolling I start work songs at moderate and ask them to add or subtract a gear when I am on a Keiser with a computer. When there is no computer, it is add a little more, take a little off but keep in mind they will be adding over a 5, 6, or 7 minute hill climb so don't add it all at once. In addition, when it is using a knob I specify each bike is different and that a half turn on one bike might not be the same as a full turn on another. I also watch for bouncers and over-resistors and address them accordingly. Always with the admonition to not drop below 60-65 rpm or go over 110 rpm because of potential injury. Some listen, some hairy-chested riders don't. Some say their other instructors tell them to add so much resistance they struggle to keep cadence above 40 while others relate their other instructors tell them to take all their resistance off and go like hell. I try to lead but some ignore. As a sub instructor I can only address the most egregious ones.

In theory a resistance setting of 10 (i.e. gear) with a cadence of 80 rpm should produce the same watts reading and the same level of actual resistance on the bike. I practice you will find that the Keiser's "loosen up" a bit over time, so that gear 10 at 80 rpm will feel harder on some bikes and easier on others over a period of time. Both bikes may still read the same watts, but the effort to turn the cranks will not be the same. I am not sure what causes this. Probably the most likely candidate is stretching of the cable that translates the movement of the resistance lever into movement of the magnet over the flywheel. In my classes most participants go for the same bike each time so differences between bikes are not a problem for people who are tracking their watts - they just focus on making the number go up over time. In classes that are often crowded I counsel people who are tracking watts to "get to know" two or three bikes so they can better gauge their effort if they don't get their favorite bike each time.

I coach my participants to establish resistance targets based on breathing and perceived exertion and then make a note of the watts (and gear and rpm) on the bike(s) they use so they can return to those levels and manipulate them in their own training. Watts provides an absolute way to gauge output in a way that gear or rpm alone cannot. You just have to be careful about comparing watts readings across bikes and/or specifying specific targets because, not only are these different for every rider, but they are different for every bike (over time) as well.